NCube Corp, the Beaverton, Oregon-based hypercube system manufacturer, is set to introduce a new massively parallel supercomputer at the top end of its range. Although firmly under wraps at present, the machine is reported to use up to 8,192 specially designed processors operating independently in parallel. Known as the NCube 6480, it is claimed to deliver an striking 100 BIPS, thats 100,000 MIPS. There will be an upgrade path from the existing NCube systems – the existing top of the range being the NCube 10 with up to 1,024 nodes, costing up to $2m – and it will run the same Unix like operating system, Axis. The 6480 will be available from NCube’s UK distributor Arrow Computer Systems of Epsom, Surrey, after its June launch in the US. Arrow says it has installed the first big NCube in the UK, and is negotiating orders for several.
